Power Consumption

Intel isn't really exploiting 22nm for significantly higher default or max turbo frequencies. While it does seem like you'll hit turbo frequencies more often with Ivy, most of what 22nm offers will be realized as power savings.

At idle, all cores are already power gated so there's not much more Ivy Bridge can offer. We see savings of a couple of watts at most over the 2600K but otherwise it's nothing significant. In notebooks I'd expect to see implementations of DDR3L help keep power consumption down, but at idle there's really not much that can be done.

Under load however the power savings are significant. The Core i7 3770K pulls 27 fewer watts while delivering better performance than the 2600K. Again, translating this to what you can expect in notebooks I'd say that peak battery life likely won't be affected, but battery life under load will be better with Ivy.

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195 Comments

"Nice to see AMD winning where it actually matters for most consumer applications."

I dont see how you can look at these (or any) benchmark and call it a win for AMD. Intel is smoking them. A few useless integrated graphics benchmarks and you call it a win? Hey, I hear RIM is looking for a new PR rep, they could really use a guy like you. ;) Reply

IGP performance is nice, but no comments about the subjective quality, i have seen side to side HD Graphics 2000 vs Radeon IGP and the graphics quality was night and day, with the radeon being the day...I dont know whats needed to do properly integrated graphics, but seems intel still lacks...Reply

Yes,people standard are different. For gamer intel IGP might suck, but it's more than enough for me.If I buy Llano, the graphic core might be just a wasted silicon because I don't really do gaming.Buy 1 if you only need 1Reply

You mentioned in your intro about the Intel-Apple exclusivity agreement being up and Apple constantly pushing Intel for better GPU performance. Do you think Ivy Bridge has made sufficient gains in GPU performance to keep Apple on board? Have you had a chance to test Ivy Bridge's IGP OpenCL performance since that seems like a particular area of interest for Apple?Reply

I think its sure that they will. They chose a weaker CPU in favour of a stronger IGP (9400 and Core 2 Duo) before, but now we're at a point where the HD4000 would be more than adequate for Mountain Lion and probably onwards, plus Intel is way ahead with 22nm and the resulting power draw as well as CPU performance, and I think Apple uses Quicksync for Airplay which is Intel-only. Reply

The top end models which would probably be paired with a discreet card get decent integrated graphics, while the low end ones which will probably be standalone get cut down IGPs. Odd. If anything I think on the top end people would want models with less space used on integrated graphics with that headroom used for higher clocks or lower prices, even the cut down IGPs can do Quicksync.

Also a suggestion for the full review, we know pretty much to expect from the HD4000 performance wise, but what about image quality? AMD and Nvidia improved things generation after generation, and I doubt Intel got it right with their first or second serious foray into lower-midrange graphics. Reply

Seriously, this is too much, its fine that you have an opinion and I might not have a problem with it if you posted it once, but you post the same damn thing on every article whether its related or not and usually multiple times, someone just please do us all a favour and ban this guy and delete his comments? Reply